For my first book report, I decided to read Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of social media by the author Brittany Hennessy. I was excited to read this book because the topic of social media influencers has always been one of my personal favorites when studying social media. This book helps explain how to become an influencer at different stages and with simplified steps. It all comes down to the concept of your personal brand.
At the beginning of the book, Brittany Hennessy gives an example of an outstanding moment that stuck with her. One day, as part of her job, she had to write a check to a dog of $32,000 (dollars) for two Facebook posts. Brittany noted that those pictures took no longer than three minutes to post and the dog received a great amount of money for it. One can think about this as receiving over $10,000 a minute. That is the great power of being an influencer.
Brittany is the Senior director of influencer strategy and talent partnerships at Hearst Magazines Digital Media. She writes that it is her job to "cast influencers to star in co-branded campaigns for the digital versions of Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook, Esquire, and more". Because of this, Brittany has great knowledge of social media influencers through the interactions she has with them and by working alongside them.
The way in which this book is step up is by following four key parts (or steps) towards becoming an influencer. These parts are then broken down into chapters that go into further details. Brittany focuses mostly on "content creator influencers" which are people who create blogs, vlogs, and social media posts. This book then is great for those who want to become these types of influencers or are already one. This book is also great for people who are starting this career from scratch, people who already have a decent amount of following, and people who are already tapping into the expert level.
Part 1 of this book is titled Building Your Community. The chapters here focus both on the feed aspect of it and the audience aspect as well. What stood out to me were the suggestions and the stages presented regarding becoming an influencer. For example, a quick exercise in relation to the feed aspect is by doing the "google yourself" activity. Brittany explains that the search results that should pop up must be content created by or provided by you. This is because "if you aren't telling your own story, someone else will" and you always want that store to be positive. If not much appears, then more work needs to be done in the content aspect things. Brittany then gives the suggestion of first starting up a blog, then moving to YouTube, and then finally to Instagram. For the audience aspect, Brittany gives different tips on what to do during different following stages. The stages vary in numbers, with Stage 1 being influencers who have 2,500 to 4,999 followers, and stage 5 with 50,000 to 100,000 followers.
Part 2 is tilted Packaging Your Brand. The chapters here focus on the edge and the press. What stood out to me here were the formulas and the networking involved with being an influencer. The edge is about standing out from other influencers. For this Brittany explains that you need to know your engagement. You can find your engagement rate with the formula [Likes + Comments] ÷ Followers (at the time of the post) = Engagement Rate. You must also know your audience demographic and present it on jobs. This includes the audience age, sex and location. Having this information allows you to appear professional. Having professional set ups, scripts, production, and much more will make you stand out. Brittany also explains that for the press, you must be ready to answer all questions, including the dreaded "tell me about yourself". In this chapter, she also explains that you should put yourself "out there" and reach out to others. This includes PR mailing lists, brands, casting agents, and many more. You must do so professionally and with your press-kit ready.
Part 3 is Monetizing Your Influence. The chapters here focus on money, contracts, and agents. What stood out to me here is the "job" aspect of being an influencer since not many people talk about this. Many focus on only the glamorous part of posting pictures. Brittany writes about basic etiquette such as answering emails, because many of these can include money in them already. She also writes that one should have a distribution fee ready. This is how much it costs to be featured on your channel/blog. This chapter also explains that it is okay to negotiate the money and decline jobs that you don't want to take. All of this must be done respectfully and with good etiquette. Brittany also writes that you should always read your contracts and have a "squad" that includes an assistant, manager, publicist, attorney, and an agent.
Lastly, Part 4 is Planning Your Future. The only chapter in this short part, focuses on the overall goal. What stood out to me is that influencers must always ask themselves, "what's next". With everything being "in the moment", how does one plan for the future? Brittany then explains that influencers must always try to secure long-term campaigns and ambassadorships. They can do this by standing out from other influencers. Brittany writes that with all the influencers she has worked with, she has only received three thank you letters from the influencers, and those are the ones that stand out. This secures them a spot with brands. Being nice will help you in this industry.
All in all, this book is a great guide into helping you become an influencer by building your personal brand on the social media age. In my opinion, it was very interesting reading this book and learning more about all the different steps, stages and tips given from someone who knows influencers. This was a very easy to read book since everything is defined in simple terms. When it comes to social media, not knowing all the new terms can be challenging, but Brittany does a great job of explaining everything in a simplified manner that people with little social media knowledge can understand. This book then is great for people who don't have much knowledge on the social media industry and the influencer world. With that said, this book can be very beginner friendly. For people who are looking for more revolutionary tips, data or advice, this book can help with the basis only. More research will need to be done if someone wants to go into more details or in depth with all the topics presented. I do recommend this book if you don’t have much knowledge on social media and influencers. This book lays out steps clearly, but further research will need to be done if you want to become an influencer. It is a wonderful starting point for many and an overall entertaining book.
Excerpt From: Brittany Hennessy. “Influencer.”
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